X-Men: Phantasm
by LJ58
Summary: Set in the X-Verse, a young teen learns he has a power that sets him apart from others. And might just destroy those he is trying to save if he isn't careful.
1. Chapter 1

_I do not own any Marvel characters named herein, and am only borrowing them for a tale meant for entertainment purposes only._

**X-Men: Phantasm**

**By LJ58**

**1**

He heard the fumbling even as the door swung back slightly on its oiled hinges.

He knew he had locked the door earlier. Just after _they_ left.

He knew the outer door had been latched, too.

Someone was good. A real professional, like in the movies.

They had barely made a sound with the locks, and now they were stepping into the living room, looking around as the gleam of their night vision goggles gave the masked face a buglike quality in the darkness that surrounded them.

The goggled gaze swept the room, placing the furniture, and yet looked right past him.

He wasn't surprised. Not anymore.

If he didn't want to be seen, he wasn't. It was as simple as that.

The night, after all, was now his element. Maybe it always had been.

The faint crackle of a radio preceded the telling whisper as a gruff voice declared in a curt whisper, "I'm in. Get backup on the doors and windows. I'll confirm his presence, and neutralize if possible."

He resisted giving a snort.

His folks were gone. Had been for days. Ever since they realized what he was. Government hysteria was enough to make them literally flee his presence without looking back. Without caring they were leaving their own home, and all they owned. Or their own son.

He should have known the 'Cleaners' would be along soon after. His older brother probably dropped a proverbial dime on him the first chance he had the moment the little prick was out of the house.

Sure, he had threatened the little prick…. Well, big prick, he supposed, since Davie was all of eighteen, while he was only sixteen.

Not that it mattered.

To his family, he was now tainted. Unnatural.

_ Mutant_.

He sighed softly, but the sound went unheard as the man eased down the hall, the floorboards creaking faintly under his feet as his right hand now lifted a gleaming semi-automatic machine pistol that he pointed ahead of him.

Wow. A lot of firepower for a single mutant. Looked like Davie had tipped them off to what he could do, or they might have tried the usual covert pickup. The kind where they take you for testing, and you never come back. He suspected you likely never survived.

He had heard of 'vaccinations' at school where kids were called to the clinic, and never came back, too. Little wonder he had left school not long after his long repressed mutant gene suddenly flared to life. And to think, he owed it to the very bullies that were so often preying on him. His brother chief among them.

He still couldn't forget that singular, defining moment.

The look on their faces had been priceless.

Until he was sent home, his parents heard his brother's story, and without giving him a chance to explain, they all bailed. Just grabbed his younger sisters, and Davie, the prick, and stuffed them in the car while his old man held a shotgun on him. Then they raced away like they were fleeing a zombie plague, or something.

He decided in the end that they were the freaks.

He was no different.

Well, not really.

He was still the same sixteen year old kid. Still had the same issues. Dreams. Desires.

Only now he had power.

And they obviously hated that. Loathed it.

Feared it.

He considered it for two solid days as he sat in the shadows of his locked home, and decided that was the true issue.

He had power. He, the supposedly powerless, now had the ability to resist all those that preyed on him, and should have been able to force him into whatever niche they desired. Only now they couldn't. Not anymore. Yes, he had decided. That was the true issue.

Conform, or die.

Submit, or be 'cleansed.'

He heard a short burst of gunfire down the hall, and almost chortled.

Someone was nervous.

Davie had definitely blabbed.

He knew from the news, and the usual gossip that most _Cleaners _usually went in hard, fast, and quiet, tranqed their victim, and disappeared. They didn't usually shoot on sight unless they were known 'resisters' like those weird guys in the colorful costumes that liked to go out and bust heads with their peers now and again for no reason he could honestly decipher.

He didn't see how their stupid battles helped anyone. Not in this country.

He continued to sit in the chair, wrapped in shadows, and heard the man swear softly now as he walked back through the house.

Sound carried so well at night, and in the stillness of the utterly silent home.

No, house.

This was no home. He wasn't sure it had ever been.

Still, without Sara's stereo, Davie's video games, or even his dad's ball games, the silence was almost palpable.

He sighed, and considered playing with the guy.

The urge was there, but he knew how well that would go over. They'd rush the house. Probably bomb the block, and wouldn't stop to care how many innocents were caught in the crossfire. Then, he knew, they'd blame it all on him, and walk away swearing their hands were clean.

Jerks.

Just another grade of bully in his mind just then.

So he sat there, quiet, and unseen, and heard the man stomp back, his frustration and simultaneous relief obvious as he called his superiors again.

"Get a team in here. He's not here."

He smirked as he heard the radio crackle, and someone say, "Where did he go?"

"Unknown. He was already gone when I arrived. Place is locked up, but empty."

"You're telling me a level three mutant is running rogue, and we don't know where he went," the other voice complained.

"Look, all I know is that he's not here. Looks like he must have bailed. There's not even a dirty dish in the sink," he retorted as he walked through the kitchen, obviously being thorough.

He gave an ironic thanks to his mother for making him always clean up after himself.

There came a profane retort, and then the other voice declared, "All right. We'll continue interviewing the family. We have to take one of the females anyway. She's got the mutant gene, too. If she's as potentially dangerous as the boy is reported to be, we'll have to terminate her. We need to question them all before we do, though, so we don't lose their cooperation."

He tensed in his chair as the man started for the door, and he now slowly rose.

They had his family. His sisters.

And they were going to kill one of them just because she _might_ be dangerous?

His eyes flared, and his shadowy mask faltered as he stepped forward.

Not that it mattered. The man had already switched off his radio.

Before the man could react, he had already grabbed him, slammed him against the door, and ripped off his mask, goggles, and radio transceiver hidden in his ear.

"Hello, gov-clone," he growled in his very pale face. "Let's chat."

The man stared at the dark silhouette before him with wide, fear-rounded eyes.

"I'll bet you think you know what I can do, don't you," he asked, his swirling gaze locked on him.

"I know….you're a mutant _freak_," he hissed back at him, trying to pull his weapon from its holster. Only his hand had clamped down on that hand, and was slowly crushing it.

"I'm a freak? You're the ones about to kill a little _girl_ because you're afraid you'd lose a pissing contest. Where is she? Where are they holding her?"

The man's lips thinned as they clamped tightly.

He laughed is his face now.

"You'll never find her," he sneered, braving the pain that had to be shooting up his arm by then.

They definitely didn't know anything about him, he decided.

Only what Davie likely _thought_ he knew.

Sure, he had seemingly turned into a _monster_ that had scared the piss out of him, and his bullying friends; literally. Only it was more than that. Much more.

He locked his still swirling gaze on the man's secrets, easily visible to him through his own wide stare, and saw the fears just within the man's bright gaze. He smirked, his flesh melting as the shadows around him fueled his gift to an extent even the afternoon's shadows had not allowed when he faced his brother, and his cronies.

The man whimpered as the five-nine boy grew suddenly, rising into a seven foot, bipedal thing that was a cross between a dinosaur, and a wolf, with lots and lots of teeth.

"I'm going to _eat_ you a bite at a time until you start talking," the agent heard him snarl, though he didn't actually say a word.

The man saw those monstrous jaws gape, leaning toward his face, and he howled in genuine terror before he began babbling like a madman. In the midst of his rambling confession to God, begging forgiveness, he spilled the location of the girl being 'detained' for questioning with her family, and exactly where the assessment center was located in the building.

He smirked, shrank back down into himself even as he stepped into a darker pool of shadows, and simply vanished.

The man whimpered, slowly lifting the forgotten weapon in his good hand, and waved it at the corner where the kid had vanished before his very eyes.

He daringly reached for a light switch, throwing it, and bathing the room in the glow of unlawful hundred watt bulbs long since outlawed by the 'green police.' He didn't care about that. There, near the door, the corner where the kid had stepped into was empty.

No windows. No passages. Just blank walls, and…..nothing else.

He slowly reached for the fallen transceiver, and realized it was broken. Something had stepped on it before the kid had left. Something heavy, he realized, judging from the cracked, reinforced ceramic housing that looked as someone had crushed it a vise.

He whimpered, and jerked the door open after scooping up his mask, and rushed out to find his team to relay the message.

He found every one of the nine men outside out cold, their radios broken, and inoperable, too.

**X**

Angela lay on the cold bench, utterly naked, and trembling with fear.

Only just thirteen, she had no idea what was going on, and having paid no attention to anything beyond the latest teen fads, she had no idea why these men were doing things to her. They only said they needed to ask her a few questions, but after a few blood tests, and a few silly questions about Sammie, they had suddenly knocked her out, stripped her, and tied her down on this table.

She woke up with a man standing over her in a white coat that asked her even weirder questions.

When she couldn't answer them, he got mad. Really mad. He slapped her. Hit her. Made her scream.

Then another man came in, and stood right in front of her as he studied something on a paper. The other guy that had led her here from the room where her family waited a moment as the man in white told him something that made no sense to her ears, and finally the other man blandly told the man in white to terminate the specimen, and prepare her for transport for further research.

That, she understood.

She whimpered as the older man left, and the man in the white coat stared at her with cold contempt in his gaze. Then he lifted a large needle, and filled it with a blue liquid as he turned toward her.

Angela felt cold fear fill her as she shook her head at him, but he started to poke her with that needle, his expression promising her more pain.

She didn't even know why.

She didn't understand why her parents suddenly panicked, and dragged everyone out of the house. Everyone but Sammie. She had no idea why they ran off while dad even aimed a gun at Sammie, who just stood there staring at them as if they had gone crazy. He never said nothing. Never did nothing. She didn't know why Davie kept saying he was a monster. She didn't have a clue.

Her sister just complained she was missing _Nickelodeon_. Nine year old Sara had a very simple view on life, too.

"Don't worry, freak. This will hurt, but it won't take too long," the scary man promised her.

"Got that right," a low, ominous voice growled, and the man turned to see a featureless, silvery shadow step right out of the wall, hands studded with long scalpels. Then the man in white was screaming as the needle was pulled effortlessly from his own grip, and shoved into his own neck.

"Don't worry, Angel," he told her as the young, blonde stared up at her brother who didn't look scary to her as the man just seemed to fall down after his eyes bulged comically, and he just spasmed like he was being electrocuted. "I'm here to save you."

"What's happening, Sammie. I don't get any of this," she complained as he began to undo her restraints. "They even took my clothes off," she blushed furiously as she belatedly realized her brother was seeing her completely naked.

"Cause they're all pervs," he told her. "Don't worry, I'm getting you out of here."

"Just tell me what's going on," she begged as she sat up, eagerly taking the spare scrub top he dug out of a drawer for her. The only clothing to be had in the small lab room in the detainment center where their family was being 'processed.' "Mom and dad never said anything. They're still treating me like a kid," she pouted.

Apparently, the others in their family had been cleared, he discovered as he infiltrated the center, and now they were just waiting to get a line on Sam before they let them go. After, of course, they 'purged' the other mutant.

He could bet that his parents would soon be sterilized by the paranoid government, too, for having birthed not one, but two mutants.

She pulled on the top he held out to her, and eyed Sam expectantly as he went to the door, peered out, and saw several Marines in the corridor. None of whom looked their way.

"Do you remember that show we saw about mutants," he finally told her after closing the door again.

"Yeah? Where the government was killing….. _No_," she rasped. "But…..we're not monsters."

"No, you're not. Neither am I. We are _mutants_, though," he told her.

"M-Me," she squeaked.

"You haven't noticed anything…..unusual yet?"

She sighed.

"Me," she huffed again, still looking like his sister, and nothing else.

"You. You'll figure it out. Same as I did. If you live long enough."

"What…..? What can you do," she asked him as he eyed the door again.

"I'll tell you. Later. These guys may be back anytime, and I'd rather not hang around. We have to go, okay?"

"How," she asked, glancing at the man on the floor that was now very still, and very quiet. And then she looked back at the table where she had fully expected to die herself.

"Take my hand," Sam told her, and held out his hand to her.

She eyed him, but still saw only her older brother who always just sit quietly reading in a corner most times, and got picked on a lot because of it. He wasn't acting like his usual shy self, though, and she slowly took his hand.

"What about mom, and dad? Or Sara?"

He noted she didn't say anything about Davie. The prick was a prick even to his sisters.

"They won't bother them. They're norms."

"Then how….?"

"No one knows," he told her. "Remember? It just happens. We have to go, though. Now," he said, and led her toward the far wall after shutting off the light.

"But….. How," he was asked even as he stepped into the shadows away from the door. Then the world spun crazily, and she almost vomited before her head stopping spinning.

Angela blinked, and stared around her.

"Where….are we," she asked, staring around her at the dark forest that could be anywhere.

"Somewhere in the northeast," he told her. "A park. I saw a picture of it once, so I could use it to fix a destination we…..crossed."

"Crossed?"

"It's what I call it. Give me a shadow, and I can go _anywhere_ if I know where it is, or even just saw a picture of it."

"Oh," she gasped, looking up at the night sky. "That is so cool," she grinned up at him.

"Yeah, it is, isn't it," he grinned. "Let's go. We need to find you some more clothes, and then someplace safe to hide."

"They're going to come after us now, aren't they," she said quietly as he led her through the forest. "Like in that movie."

"They'll try," he agreed.

"So, you can just…..go anywhere? I wonder what I can do," she wondered as she smiled thoughtfully as she followed him through the dark park.

"We'll figure it out," he told her, not bothering to tell her that his 'crossing' was just one more gift he had in his complete mastery over shadows. Be they real, or imagined.

"Sammie," she asked after a few minutes. "Why don't we just go home? We could get our own stuff, and….."

"Can't. There may still be bad people there. I left when they showed up," he told her, not saying any more.

"Oh."

He looked back at her, and asked, "You okay?"

"I….don't know. That…. That guy was really gonna kill me. Wasn't he?"

"Yes," he nodded.

"But I didn't do nothing," she complained, looking more child than not in the oversized scrub.

"Neither did I," he told her quietly.

"This sucks," she muttered. "And I'm hungry," she complained.

He looked around, and considered the hour.

"I can probably fix that. Find someplace to hide. Just in case. I'll go get some food, and be right back."

She looked around uneasily at the dark forest lit only by the faint sliver of the moon overhead.

"Are you sure you can find me again?"

"I can find you anywhere, squirt," he smiled, and gave her an impulsive hug. "I just don't want anyone else popping up to find you looking the way you are just now. Now, hide, and I'll be right back."

"Be careful," she rasped, even as she went toward a tree, and looked up, intending to climb it.

Even as she started to climb, she realized Sam was already gone.

Just….gone.

_To Be Continued…_


	2. Chapter 2

_I do not own any Marvel characters named herein, and am only borrowing them for a tale meant for entertainment purposes only._

**X-Men: Phantasm**

**By LJ58**

_**2**_

Angela was settling into the vee of the tree that gave her a view over the forest around her when she saw lights nearby the trees of the forested park. She stared for a moment, wondering if it was a house, or something, but then realized the light was moving. It was a flashlight.

"This way," she heard someone say quite clearly.

She tensed, wondering who it might be even as she made out at least two silhouettes. She felt fear etch her spine, and she hoped Sammie really was coming back soon, because as thin as the foliage was just now, they'd still see her for sure if they just looked up. She watched the light, noted the way the two figures were coming directly toward her, and realized they were somehow focused on her tree.

"Professor," a woman asked the man standing next to her with some kind of metal braces on his legs.

"He's gone."

"So, he is a teleporter," the woman with the flashlight asked.

"Oh, he's much more, Jean. Much more. The only question is if he can control it, or if he's going to end up turning on others the way he's being hounded."

"A shame they had to pass that gene-registration law. Just when I thought things were getting better, too."

"We can't give up," he told her. "So long as we live, there is always hope."

"Yes," Jean agreed quietly, though there was doubt in her eyes.

"Isn't that right, Angela," Charles Xavier said as he looked right up at her in that very instant she was looking down.

She gave a tiny squeak, and started to fall even as both psychics reached out to grab her with their minds. In the same instant, she caught herself, and nimbly scampered even higher like a great cat.

She froze near the very top of the tree, gaping at herself in surprise as she realized her nails weren't shredding, and were in fact, very long, very strong claws that supported her as she clung to the tree.

"We're not going to harm you, Angela. We are here to help you, _and_ your brother," the bald man called up to her.

"Like I haven't already heard that one lately, buster," she shouted back at him, her eyes suddenly sharper, and able to make out every detail of the pair standing below her in the dark.

Weird.

Or maybe….

She looked at one hand she held up, seeing the extended claws, and swallowed hard as she clung to the tree with an ease that astonished even her. Sure, she liked to climb things. She always had. But even she had never gone right up a tree like a cat without even thinking about it.

She suddenly found herself smiling.

Until a sharp pain exploded from her barely covered backside, and she almost lost her grip again.

Unseen hands stabilized her, and she gasped in fear and wonder as those same unseen hands now plucked her from the tree, and gently lowered her to stand before the pair even as she realized she was feeling something that couldn't possibly be real.

"Whoa," she murmured, staring at the long, slender tail now jutting from behind her flanks as she realized her bare flesh wasn't quite as bare as before. Unnoted until now, a light dusting of golden fur was now covering her.

Every inch of her, she noted as fingers rose to gently touch her cheeks.

"What'd you do to my sister," an angry voice growled as darkness around the trio suddenly darkened all the more, and the redhead with the bald man actually staggered.

"Steady, Jean," he called her. "He's only warning us. Nothing is _real_. Not yet."

"Who are you, old man?"

Angela turned to see her brother walking toward her, his eyes flashing a weird grayish-white, and carrying two heavy bags he must have filled up somewhere.

"It's okay, Sammie. I think I just….uh, got my powers. Look," she said, and held out a hand as she flexed just so, and the claws sprang free again.

His grim visage softened slightly, and he stared hard at her, but without any hint of censure. "Well, you always were a cat person," he teased her fondly.

"Ha, ha," she gruffed.

"You sure you're okay? Who are….? Hey, I know you," he said, eyeing Xavier. "I saw you on the news when you tried to lecture that gov-moron on genetic diversity."

"Yes. Unfortunately, that _moron_ is the man that won, and swayed the government into accepting that dreadful bill that they now use to excuse murder, and far worse."

"What's worse than murder," Angela frowned.

"I hope you never have to find out," Jean told her.

"Meanwhile, I'd like to invite the both of you to join us. I run a school…."

"We're not going to be your soldiers," Sam cut in. "I know what you do. You train people to fight other mutants. Well, we're not joining up."

"But….if we're all mutants," Angela frowned, "Why fight our own kind? Shouldn't we fight the government who's doing the bad stuff?"

"Very well said, my dear," a cultured voice with a slight accent drawled as another newcomer came out of the forest.

Sam spun around, staring at the man in a helmet and cape as red as it was dark. Then he spotted the silent woman at his side.

A woman with startlingly red hair, and genuinely blue skin.

"Eric."

"Please, Charles. You know I favor Magneto," he drawled. "And this, my young friends, is Mystique."

"I'm not your friend, metal head," he growled.

"Another one with attitude," the caped man sighed. "This world does seem to breed poor manners, doesn't it, old friend," he called Charles. "Still, I heard what you said about fighting, young man, and I assure you, we would prefer not to fight. Not when the true enemy is out there," he gestured. "And that enemy is the only one that matters."

"Eric, that is simplistic thinking. Not every human is the enemy."

"No? Why not ask this fellow? Who turned on you, young man? A friend? A lover? A parent?"

Sam glared at him.

"Our brother turned him in," Angela spoke up.

"Ah, what a lovely young lady. You look beautiful, my dear," Magneto smiled.

She blushed beneath her fur.

"And did he not turn on you, too?"

"He… They…didn't know. Those….doctors did some tests, and then they were going to….k-kill me. But Sammie saved me. He….walked right _through_ the walls, and….stopped them."

"Indeed," Magneto stared at the young teen in innocuously casual clothing.

Sam just glared backat him.

"So, what do they call you. I, of course, am Magneto. You've met Charles, or Professor X, and his…..Phoenix."

"Phoenix," Angela echoed quietly, looking back at her.

"I don't like that name," she said quietly. "I'm Jean," she told Sam. "Jean Gray."

Sam stared at her.

Unlike most of those he had touched as yet, her fears weren't general. They were personal. She feared losing control. Of herself. Her own power. Because it wasn't just a power. It was a living entity with an appetite for destruction that rivaled any other force in the known Cosmos. Phoenix, he realized, could literally shatter the entire planet were Jean to unleash that force.

"How," she sputtered, and glared at him.

She shook her head as Sam withdrew from her mind.

"It's not very polite to enter another's mind without permission, young man," Charles told him. "How would you like it if someone did that to you?"

"You couldn't," he huffed.

"No," Charles asked, and then his smile faltered, and he frowned.

"What's wrong, old friend? Having trouble? How….interesting," Mangeto murmured, staring at Sam.

Sam only stared back. He had no idea that the most powerful telepath on the planet was having trouble reading him. Charles, in fact, could barely even sense his mind. Only two others could defeat him so. One was Magneto, when he wore his protective helm. The other was his own mystically charged stepbrother who also relied on an enchanted helmet.

Never had anyone managed to truly do so beyond them.

Yet all he could sense was a swirling haze of shadow, and mist. As if Sam were so deeply wrapped in it that he could not be found. Not mentally.

"Well, as to your charge," Charles went on now, carefully choosing his words. "Some of my students do fight. To protect others, as well as ourselves. We fight for a better world. Still, not all do. And my institution is first, and foremost, a school. One where unique students can learn in peace, as well as learn _themselves_, and what they can do."

"In a safe environment," Jean added. "And I would be the last to deny that some of our powers can be….dangerous. Even to ourselves. The Professor can teach you to use them properly, and control them so they don't endanger anyone. Least of all yourselves."

"That kind of sounds okay," Angela told Sam, back to standing close to him. Just in case.

"Indeed," Magneto spoke again. "I'd not deny my friend Charles has the best of intentions. Only he cannot seem to get over the notion that we should _coexist_ with the very people trying to eradicate us. That is our greatest difference, young _Shadow_," he called Sam. "Because I do not see the need to protect humans. In fact, we should be eradicating them."

"Don't call me that," Sam grumbled.

"Then that makes you as bad as those doctors," Angela blurted out in the same instant. "Killing is wrong. Just because you get powers doesn't make you right. It just makes you different," she huffed.

"Ah, another idealist. And so young. I hope you never live to regret your ideals, young lady. But reality has a way of making you face that harsher truth, even if you prefer otherwise."

He paused, glanced at Mystique, then nodded at Sam.

"What of you, Shadow," he persisted in calling him. "Are you an idealist?"

"Hardly. But I'm not a killer either," he said, but didn't mention that doctor. That, he knew, had been an accident. He had not realized that syringe was deadly until he had already injected him.

"No?"

"No. If I were, my brother would already be dead," he spat.

"Indeed. And if he came after you again? Or your sister? They'll know all about her now. They _will_ come. What then?"

"Then we'll leave," Sam said, and by then had taken his sister's hand, ready to flee the moment it was necessary. If not sooner.

"Take it from me, young man. Large as it is, the world is a smaller place than you realize," Magneto told him with a faint smile. "Eventually, you run out of places to hide. Then…."

"We're going with Professor Charles," Angela blurted. "I'd rather learn stuff, than just be a killer."

Magneto didn't shout. Didn't threaten. He only smiled.

"Learning….stuff is always admirable, young lady. When you have the chance to do so. Still, if you should ever change your mind, either of you, know that the _Brotherhood_ will always welcome you to our ranks. Another time, Charles. I do look forward to seeing how you _bungle_ this one."

Xavier said nothing to that as Magneto, and the blue woman with him simply rose into the air as a metal bubble formed around them, and then shot into the night at high speed.

Sam wasn't surprised. Him, he had heard about, too.

"He's probably why they passed that stupid law," he muttered.

"He is, in part. Never discount the motivation of fear, though, young man. Believe me, some people out there genuinely fear us."

"I figured that one out a few days ago," he muttered.

"So, are you willing to give us a chance to prove ourselves," Jean asked him quietly.

"I guess. For Angela's sake. We won't be fighting, though. I'm serious," he added.

"That is your choice. As I said, we only want to help. Nothing more. Anything else is your choice," Charles told him agreeably.

Sam only nodded.

"Then, we'll give it a try. And that's all I'm saying."

"So, how did you get into my head? Or keep Professor X out," Jean asked as they turned, and led them to a waiting aircraft that sleek, black, and shimmered with some kind of stealth tech that kept it hidden until they actually reached it. "Because not many can do either," she admitted.

Yet Sam had seen that jet as they approached. Even through the cloak. He said nothing about that as they settled into the seats, buckling up as a voluptuously curved African woman with surprisingly white hair despite her youth nodded at the professor as she fired up the engines. Nor did he answer _Phoenix._

"This is Storm," Jean told them when Sam didn't answer her. "She controls weather, and is a very good pilot."

"Really," Angela asked. "You can make your own weather?"

"I am in tune with the elements," the woman murmured with a soft, lyrical tone.

"That must be so cool. All I do is climb trees," she said guilelessly.

Storm smiled back at her, then stated sincerely, "I suspect that can be a very handy talent at times, too."

Angela smiled, liking her at once.

"Take us home, Ororo," Charles told her.

Sam turned to watch the belly hatch seal itself, and felt the engines powering up as the jet immediately began to lift into the sky.

_To Be Continued…_


	3. Chapter 3

_I do not own any Marvel characters named herein, and am only borrowing them for a tale meant for entertainment purposes only._

**X-Men: Phantasm**

**By LJ58**

**3**

"Where's my daughter," Gina Stone demanded as nine year old Sara came out alone. David sat near her husband, but Angela had yet to show up.

"We….had to incarcerate her for your own safety, ma'am. It turned out that she carried an active mutant genome, too."

"What," Mary Collins gasped.

"Man, I don't get nothing cool," the nine year old Sara huffed.

The adults eyed the pouting girl with sour expressions, but no one responded to her.

"But she's only a child…."

"Mutants are not children. Not normal children. She's too potentially dangerous to allow to go free," the glowering agent informed her.

"This isn't right," she complained. "Angela isn't a monster!"

"Your own son already turned on you. He could have killed you all by your older boy's own admission," the agent in dark gray scowled.

She shot a hard glare at Davie, and again she saw that guilty expression flash across his face before he steeled himself, and looked away.

More and more, she was doubting his story.

Not her husband, though. Fanatic to the last, Richard had been the first to volunteer to ensure he wasn't 'tainted.'

"What will you do with her," Richard asked. "I mean, she won't get loose? Will she?"

"Henry," Mary gasped. "She's our daughter!"

"She's a freak. No wonder she was always in trouble….."

"By that definition, every teen in the world must be a mutant," she huffed.

"We're setting up school scanning posts now, ma'am. We'll find out," the agent told her dryly.

"I'm starting to think….."

"Careful, ma'am," the agent spat. "Or someone might think you are a _sympathizer_."

"My children are _not_ monsters," she screamed.

Which was when two guards rushed in, and went to his side.

"The specimen broke free. We can't find her," one told him.

"What of Dr. Rollins?"

"_Dead_," the guard said flatly.

The agent stared at Mary.

"Not a monster," the agent spat, and turned and left them there as he rushed out of the lobby, telling the guards, "Get them out of my command center. We don't need them any longer."

"Mom," Davie rasped. "You really think…._Angel_…..killed someone?"

"No," she spat. "Just as I still think you're lying. Again," she accused as the guards ushered them toward the door.

And a waiting cab.

"Mary, be reasonable," Richard complained as the two armed men led them out of the center. "It's best we just leave this to the government. Just be grateful they discovered those freaks were here before they could…."

Mary turned away from him, taking Sara by the hand as the girl began paling at her father's angry words, starting to sniffle.

"Get your own cab," she told Richard and David when she climbed into the wafting car with her daughter. "I'm leaving, you heartless bastard!"

"Mary," he roared, but she had already shut the door, and told the driver to go.

Being used to domestic squabbles, the driver obeyed.

The guards simply smirked at him as he gestured for another cab to be called.

**X**

"Time," Scott, AKA Cyclops said as he watched the golden-furred, bipedal feline scamper through the Danger Room's simulation.

She was young, but eager, and was almost as fast as Quicksilver. She was also already almost as agile, and graceful as a true cat of any stripe. Probably more so than even Beast. She was also stronger than she looked, and with those claws, he knew she could be potentially lethal if she wished.

Or weren't careful.

Her current simulations were to assess her instinctive reactions to ensure she could control that lethality under any conditions.

So far, she scored higher than most more experienced students of her age.

The only one of his current students he had yet to see in the Danger Room as yet was her brother.

_ Shadow_, as even the Professor had allowed him to be called though Sam protested it, remained much like his namesake, haunting the halls, and usually the library, but taking part in nothing but classes as he kept a very close eye on his sister.

Some of the others at first thought there was something perverse about him, but then they realized he really was just making sure she was okay. Especially after hearing how he had saved her from death in a gov-center.

Some of them had lost friends and family in those seemingly innocent clinics, and they all applauded Shadow for daring to break into such a place.

Only Scott knew just how easy that had been for Shadow after the Professor filled him in on what he speculated about the reticent young mutant.

A genuine _Class V _like Jean.

And if that weren't cause for concern, Scott didn't know trouble.

"Who's the new furball," a low growl asked as the lithe, blonde feline walked out of the Danger Room, grinning at her new peers as Scott surveyed her training data.

_ Speaking of trouble_, he thought as he turned to eye Logan, still in jeans, and wearing a torn tee.

"Back already," he asked.

"Dead end," the ageless mutant that was older than he looked shrugged.

"Really?"

"Well, it is now," Logan, AKA Wolverine among other names said with a dry smirk.

Scott didn't ask.

If Logan said something was a dead end, it was dead. Often literally.

"Nice tail," the human killing machine grinned, seeing that golden appendage swaying with every step as she left the Danger Room.

"She's just a kid."

Logan snorted.

"In this place? Face it, Summers. They quit being _kids_ the minute they learned they were mutants," he growled.

"Well, she is. Besides, you don't want to face her brother. He's…..protective."

"Nothing wrong with that," he shrugged. "Who's her brother," he asked, eyeing a monitor showing the hall where some of the younger mutants were standing around the feline, obviously congratulating her.

"He's not around. He tends to stay….out of sight."

"Oh, one of those."

"Look in the mirror lately?"

Logan glowered at him.

"He's also a Class V, and can block the Professor," Scott admitted.

"Really? He can keep Charlie out? I like him already."

"You would."

"So, where is Chuck?"

"I believe he has class just now. _Ethics_. You might want to sit in."

"Cute," Logan huffed as Scott's next class entered the Danger Room even as Logan headed for the door. "Don't you have some kids to baby-sit?"

Scott resisted the urge to blast him. He was, after all, setting an example for the younger students.

**X**

"You must be Chuck's new cause."

"I'm nobody's cause, mister," Sam glowered as he eyed the short, hairy man that looked at him with smug indifference.

"Ain't impressed with the attitude, boy. I've got plenty of my own," he drawled, and lifted the beer he had found hidden in the kitchen to his lips.

"Whatever," Sam muttered.

"Saw your sister. Cute little minx. She already taken?"

Sam turned on him, eyes blazing with grayish light that hid his irises.

Logan smirked, still not impressed.

Until the kid started changing, and suddenly he was facing Sabretooth.

Only it was a Sabretooth right out of a madman's nightmare.

"What the fu…..?"

The blow sent him flying across the library, and into a shelf.

"Never….talk about my sister like that," Sam growled through the monstrous caricature. "I don't care who you are. You will never talk about her like that again," he snarled even as Logan staggered to his feet, his lacerated scalp already healing.

"Not bad, kid. Why don't you and me take it down to the Danger Room, and see what you can really do?"

"Not interested," Sam growled, his eyes narrowing on Logan as he stood up, and shook off the blow with blatant ease.

"Or, I could go sound out that cute little pus…"

This time Logan went through the wall.

**X**

Charles Xavier ran out into the hallway even as he felt the emotional, as well as the physical reverberations that echoed through the entire mansion.

"Logan," he sighed, pausing to look down at the battered man laying sprawled on the floor even as a monstrously augmented Sabretooth stalked toward him. The wake of destruction behind them was obvious.

Charles sighed, and held up a hand.

"Calm down, Sam. Logan is just…. Well, he's being Logan. Whatever he said….. Or did….."

"He just better stay _away_ from my sister," the giant Sabretooth growled viciously.

"Or else what," Logan smirked as he sat up, his wounds already healing again.

"Logan," Charles chided him.

"Sam," Jean came up behind him just then, recognizing him inside that shadowy, if realistic construct. "Logan would never hurt your sister. Trust me. He does like to _push_ people, though, to see how far they'll let him go. He's perverse like that," she scowled at the man standing up now to dust himself off. Not one sign of injury on his body, though his clothes hung from him in literal tatters.

"Not bad, kid. Not bad. You'll do," he said, and held out a hand.

Sam scowled, and glared at the hand.

Shrinking down into himself, he turned away, growling, "Just stay away from my sister, or I'll see if you can still heal after I twist off your head."

"Oh, I like him," Logan growled.

Not even the professor realized that Sam was confused. Logan radiated fear like a stove radiated heat. Yet it didn't paralyze him. It didn't slow him down. It didn't even show. If anything, he was daring beyond belief, and didn't so much as bat an eye at the worst Sam could throw at him.

Even Jean had recoiled when he had simply explored her own shadows.

Logan only laughed.

What kind of man was he, he had to wonder.

**X**

"You appear to have the look of a man pondering the secrets of the universe," the blue-furred scientist that called himself Beast remarked as he came across Sam later that evening in the quiet beyond the mansion.

Sam sat on the ground, holding an open book, but had not read much since the sun began setting.

He turned to see the mutant not standing behind him, but hanging from a branch overhead.

"Beg your pardon," Hank McCoy drawled, and somersaulted down. "I often come out here to get away from the chaos myself. I find a certain….relaxation to be had out here."

"You're Dr. McCoy," he nodded, not having actually met him, but having heard from him from his sister. She seemed to like his teaching science. Something he never expect to hear from his usually celebrity obsessed sibling.

"Indeed. And you are Sam Stone. AKA Shadow."

"Are they still calling me that," he groaned.

"They do like coming up with less than clever sobriquets around here. Of course, in Logan's case, _Wolverine_ does seem to fit him well."

"He's…..weird."

"To say the least," Hank agreed.

"Most people…. I can show them what they fear, and they….crumble. Run. Whatever. He _laughs_."

"My boy, I doubt anyone will every truly understand Wolverine. Not even Wolverine," he said, settling beside him under the tree. "I can tell you, though, that Logan has faced far more than most realize, and come out on top. It has cost him. A great deal in some cases, but he is a born fighter. He doesn't know how not to fight. I'd say that is likely his greatest strength. Of course, a preternatural healing factor, and adamantium bones don't hurt," he added with a faint smile.

"I'll bet," Sam huffed.

"So, what set you off with our resident misanthrope? I would be the last to deny Logan can get under your skin, but I don't see how he would have…..?"

"He talked about my sister. Like she was…. Well, like he'd….. _Do_ things."

"Logan?"

"I don't like him," Sam muttered, and glanced away.

"Few do. Logan can be a very dangerous man. He's got a lousy attitude, no manners, and it's taken the Professor almost two years just to get him to stop smoking his cigars around the younger students. Still, he's a good man at heart, and he'll fight to the very end to protect his own. Have you met Kitty?"

"Yes. She seems to find it funny that they named me Shadow, when she's called…."

"Shadowcat. Yes. You do know why?"

"Yeah, I saw her….do stuff."

"Well, Logan saved her life on more than one occasion. He views the students as his own family, since he doesn't have one himself. And he has done more to help keep the students safe than anyone else besides Charles. Still, he likes to keep people on their toes. If he thinks you're shirking, he will try to prod you. Push you. Encourage you to do more."

"Encourage," Sam muttered dourly.

"Well, I won't deny that he's got a novel approach toward motivation, but I've seen him get some surprising results at times."

Sam said nothing to that at first.

"I already said I won't fight."

"And Charles won't ask you to go against your own principles, Sam. That's not what he's about. But, Sam, what if they came for Angela? What if they came _here_? Would you stand, and declare you don't fight?"

"_Them_…. I'd kill," he spat without reservation.

"Then don't you think you should hone your own skills? Just so you'll know the best way to defend your sister without endangering yourself, or her?"

"I wouldn't….?"

"I'm told you radiate that…..shadow of yours whenever you cut loose, as it were. Did you know that while you fought Logan, you gave five of our younger students waking nightmares? Did you know that even one of our faculty was paralyzed with fear just because you walked past her earlier?"

Sam looked away. "I didn't mean…"

"Practice isn't always about preparing to fight. It's about _controlling_ what you have, so you don't accidentally hurt innocents. Even I have to train. Look at me. I'm stronger than I look, and if I weren't careful, I'd crush someone's bones just trying to shake their hand."

"So, you were a jock," Sam muttered.

"Hardly. I grew up a nerd, hiding in libraries," Hank grinned.

Sam stared.

"Really. I didn't earn my PhDs by throwing footballs, or other such nonsense. I would like to think, too, that intelligence will always trump brute force. Though, I can hardly deny that sometimes a little brute force can come in handy."

"Oh."

"So, how about we try to hone your skills? You obviously already have a good instinctive grip on your powers. Honing that skill shouldn't be too hard for you."

"I guess. So, what about you? Don't you have…..fears, too?"

"Absolutely. Everyone does, Sam. It's what you do when _facing_ them that marks you."

"Hey, Beast," a shout came from nearby.

"And speaking of brutes,"

Sam actually chortled as Logan shouted again.

"Over here, Logan," he called out, and the man appeared in the tree line, now wearing fresh jeans, and a new tee.

"What are you doing out here? Chuck wants you. Something about some calibrations he needs to run on some doohickey."

"Well, wouldn't want to leave the doohickey uncalibrated," Hank remarked, rolling his eyes. "Talk to you later, Sam. I look forward to working with you, too."

"Sure," Sam nodded after a moment as he only then closed his book, and stood up.

Logan just stood and watched Beast go by, then eyed Sam.

"Still pissed?"

"Just leave my sister alone, and we're cool," Sam told him as he climbed to his feet.

"Hey, I just found out she's still kind of young even for me," Logan smirked. "Still, she's quite a hottie already. Maybe in a few years….."

Logan woke up alone, laying under a tree that had been snapped when he had been slammed into it face first.

"Damn, that kid's _touchy_," he grumbled, and freed his claws to slice the trunk into manageable pieces before he could get up.

_To Be Continued….._


	4. Chapter 4

_I do not own any Marvel characters named herein, and am only borrowing them for a tale meant for entertainment purposes only._

**X-Men: Phantasm**

**By LJ58**

**4**

"Hey," Scott nodded as Sam walked into the Danger Room's control center. "I wasn't expecting you. Were you looking for….?"

"I…. I'd like to figure out…..how to keep my…..power from hitting people I don't want to target. Ms. Gray said you could do that," Sam told him.

"Admirable. I learned that one the hard way myself," he said, tapping his visor.

Sam only nodded.

"I also heard what you did to Logan."

"Oh."

"Wished I could have seen it. The guy _needs_ smacked around more often, you ask me," Scott smirked as he ran his fingers over the console before him.

Sam, having just left Logan laying under a tree. A very big, very heavy tree, said nothing.

"Look, I just…. I know I kind of….freaked some of the people around me today. I want to stop that from happening. At least, by accident."

"That's a good idea. First, we need to measure your sphere of influence, so we can figure out your range."

"Oh. Yeah, that's pretty smart. How can you do that?"

"The Danger Room isn't just for training. It's got the ability to scan, analyze, and assess your power levels, and range of influence. In a fight, wanted, or unwanted, it's a good idea to know what you can, and cannot do. That, by the way, is why we like to train in teams, too. Teamwork can make up for…."

"I'm just trying to control my power. Not…..join anyone's army."

"Suit yourself. I'll calibrate the computers, and all you have to do is crank up your…..whatever. I'll tell you what to do when you get down there. You can take that lift….."

Scott was still pointing when the boy just vanished, and reappeared on the floor of the Danger Room.

"So, you can teleport, too?"

"I guess. I just….step through shadows. I can use them to go anywhere."

"How far have you crossed?"

"Well, the longest I tried was…. I guess about twelve hundred miles."

"Twelve….!"

Scott stared down at the slender kid.

"Kid, that's a heck of a power in itself. Even the _Elf_ can't do that. Okay, don't target anyone, just kind of….open up that shadow power of yours, and try to keep it around yourself. If it helps, imagine a few guys standing just around you, and you are trying to target them, and only them."

"Okay," he said, and Scott noted the surge in power as the computers recorded a psionic spike that was equal to…..

"Oh, no," he moaned, not yet realizing just how serious Charles had been when he had warned Sam might be a genuine Class V.

"How's that," Sam called out.

Scott looked to the instruments, and back down at the boy that showed nothing but those weirdly glowing eyes. No auras. No darkening shrouds. Just the eyes.

But his instruments didn't lie, and he was feeling more than a little uneasy himself.

"You're still radiating at nearly…..a forty foot radius. Try pulling it back. _Closer_ to yourself."

"Oh. Okay," he murmured even as the doors opened, and Logan walked into the room.

"Heard you were running a test. How about I help out, Cyke," he called out as he walked right over to stand in front of Sam with a curt, smirking grin.

"You are tough," Sam growled, and Scott noted the surge in the already high spiking levels.

The kid really didn't like Logan.

"I can guess what you're trying. Just ball up everything, and aim it at me. _Only_ me," Logan grinned mockingly. "If you can."

Sam grumbled, and his eyes flared.

An instant later, Logan was at the far side of the chamber.

"Got it," Scott called.

For just an instant, Sam had intensified his field, but he had also narrowed it, and fixed it solely on Logan. Just Logan.

"How did he do," Logan asked, peeling himself off the floor as he rolled his shoulders, and walked over to join Sam again.

"Pretty good for a first try. Sam, if you can just remember what you did, you were able to narrow your field down to a two foot radius focused solely on your…..target. That's what you need to practice, and perfect."

"I can do that," Sam said, still glaring at Logan.

"Okay. Now, I want you to cut loose on the next test. Spread your power out as _far_ as you can, but don't have a specific target. Just a general release, as if you were….."

"Taking out a military base full of gov-drones," Sam suggested.

"Sure. Think about that," Scott agreed.

"Think you could," Logan asked. "Take out an entire base full of hardcore mutant-hating soldiers that all want to shoot you dead?"

Sam glared at him, and simply took a deep breath.

Then this time, shimmering black mist roiled around, and out of him as he let the power go, and Scott immediately screamed.

"Stop! Stop it now! Dear God, _stop_!"

Sam cut off the flow of his power as Scott clung to the arms of his chair, brow still dripping sweat, and visions of horrific nightmares still roiling through his mind.

"Scott," Jean and Charle's telepathic voices both filled his head at once. "What happened? What was that? Every student in the school just screamed!"

"I….. I think that was…. My fault, Professor. Reassure everyone. We're fine," he said, still trying to compose himself. "I was just….testing _Shadow_."

"I see," Charles said, Jean's psychic voice now silent.

"You zapped the whole school," Logan blurted. "Damn, kid, and even I could tell you weren't even trying. Good job," he added with a crooked grin.

"The….whole school," Sam frowned, and then vanished into a curtain of shadow that rose around him, and faded with his departure.

"Whoa! What was that?"

"He can teleport with shadows, Logan. He said he crossed over a thousand miles that way once."

"A thousand….? Even the Elf can't go that far!"

"He's Class V for sure," the still shaken Cyclops told him. "God help us, he may even be more powerful than Jean!"

"That kid?"

"That kid," Scott said, still trying to drive those demonic visions from his mind.

**X**

"You okay?"

"Sammie," Angela cried, and leapt from her bed where she sat staring wide-eyed, and fearful. "I thought….!"

"I'm okay. What about you?"

"I…. I thought…. I felt….."

"I'm sorry. That was me. Cyclops was testing my…..range. You know, for my powers," he grimaced.

"You….really made me…..scared," she shuddered.

"I guess I can do that," he said quietly. "I am sorry. I didn't mean….."

"Wow, that so beats a furry bod," she laughed nervously.

"I don't know," he smiled, and hugged her reassuringly before he gently, and slowly released her. Even as he did, he belatedly realized another aspect of his power. Even as he let her go, he was subtly, but gradually pulling the fears from her mind. As if he could pull the very shadows from her mind, leaving her untouched by them.

"Wow, I feel better," she murmured. "Was that you, too?"

"Yeah. I guess. I was just trying to make you feel…..better," he admitted. "So, it worked?"

"Could you….help the others? I mean, if you…don't mind. My roomie is still under her bed."

Sam glanced over at the empty bed, and realized there was a twelve year old girl hugging a large teddy bear peering up at him with wide, fear-rounded eyes from under the bunk.

"It's okay," he told her. "You're safe," he told her, seizing the shadows haunting her mind, and pulling them out. "I promise."

She smiled faintly, then gave a weak laugh.

"Okay, I'm feeling silly now. I don't know why I thought the ceiling was going to collapse on me."

"You probably heard what I told Angela," he sighed.

"Yeah. So you can control….fear?"

"Something like that," he told her.

The girl grinned.

"That is _so_ cool," she agreed with Angela.

He rolled his eyes as she climbed from under the bed.

Then he consciously released his power again, but this time he reached out, seeking the darker shades of the mental shadows around him, and pulled them all back to him. He sampled the minds spawning them, and felt every fear and phobia around him, but they left him untouched. Unaffected. Then he left the minds around him free of that fear, and utterly calm as he absorbed their fears like a sponge.

"I….think Professor Xavier wants to talk to you," Angela told him just then even as he opened his eyes again.

"Oh. Yeah. I'll bet he does," he sighed. "You okay now?"

"I'm great," she told him, jumping up to hug him again. "Thanks. I knew you could help. I can't wait to have you join our training. It's going to be great," Angela beamed.

"I'm not really a fighter," he complained. "You know that."

"Please. You could shut down the enemy so fast that no one would have to fight," the green-haired preteen told him. Flora had an affinity for anything that grew, and could directly influence any kind of plant life. It was enough to make her own parents drive her from home when they found she could make their garden grow with unnatural swiftness.

"There's an idea," Angela agreed. "You could shut them down, and all we'd have to do is mop them up!"

"He's on my team, _Cat_! I call dibs," Flora told her.

"No way! He's my brother!"

Sam rolled his eyes, and stepped out of the room through the door this time.

He ran into Ororo and Jean coming toward him.

"Sam," the weather-witch smiled. "Charles would like to…."

"I know. Angela just told me."

"I assume you were the cause of our sudden…..fears? _And_ their vanishing," Jean asked.

"I was with Cyclops. We were trying to…..assess my range."

"Indeed," Ororo smiled. "I don't think you realize yet just how powerful you truly are, Samuel. I hope you learn to use your powers wisely."

"I'm trying," he told her, liking the older woman.

"And, thank you," Ororo added.

"Thank….? For what," he frowned.

"It is not common knowledge, but I've had a long-lived fear of….enclosed spaces," she admitted sheepishly. "Tonight, after all this time, I felt that fear just….vanish. I believe I have you to thank?"

"Wait, I was just….cancelling out the fear I accidentally turned loose….."

"You did more than that, Sam," Jean told her. "You removed both fears and phobias from us that have suffered some very strong ones for years. Even I had my own….issues. Now, it's as if a burden were just pulled off my shoulders. I wager a lot more of our people could likely say the same, too."

"Oh," he frowned.

"Don't worry, Sam," Jean told him. "We've all made mistakes when we first start out. I know I did."

"We all do," Storm told him. "But you will learn. Just as we did. It's just your turn," the woman smiled warmly at him.

"Okay. Well, I guess I had better go see the professor," he sighed.

"This way," Jean told him, and gestured.

Sam didn't say anything, but simply followed the redhead as Ororo stayed back to talk with some of the other students who were still confused by what had just happened. Some of them, he realized, were pretty young.

He knew that mutant manifestation was usually tied to puberty, but some of the kids here were too young for that. Which meant the experts were obviously wrong. Again.

Sam couldn't help but wonder what else they were wrong about.

**X**

"Come in, Sam," Charles smiled as turned from his desk, and it took him a moment to realize the Professor was now in a wheelchair.

"I thought you could walk," he frowned, eyeing the chair that moved on its own as if connected to him somehow.

"Excuse me," he smiled back, stopping his chair near him. "My cybernetic limbs are only good for a certain time, and then they have to be recharged," he told him. "I actually cannot walk without them, though, due to….an old injury."

"Oh. So, I guess you already know….?"

"Indeed. Your power is proving stronger, and more versatile than even I realized," Charles told him. "Which, I hope you understand, makes learning to control it all the more paramount."

"I get that. I don't really want to hurt anyone," he told the man as he took the chair Charles had gestured to as Jean left, and closed the door behind her. He tried not to think of that doctor back at the assessment center again. Still, a part of him felt the freak got just what he deserved.

"None of us want to hurt anyone," Charles told him. "As we have discussed, though, there are certain realities involved in our lives. I suspect you already know that as well as I."

He only nodded as Charles just stared at him, apparently still trying to see inside, from the way his head felt.

"You might as well give up."

"I noticed. Your…..shadows do present a formidable defense against psychic attack, Shadow."

"Can't you…..just call me Sam," he groaned.

"Codenames aren't just for our vanity, Sam," Charles Xavier told him. "It's to protest those of us with families, or friends we want to protect. While some of my students are rather more well known than others, not all are. We favor keeping it that way. Hence, the codenames."

"But…..Shadow," he groaned. "It's as bad as calling Angel _Cat_," he huffed.

"Well, she chose that one. And seems to enjoy it."

Sam sighed, slumping back in his chair, and muttering, "She would."

"All right, then. What do you prefer," Professor X asked him, his hands steepled before him as he moved around his desk to stop before Sam's chair, just studying him.

"I don't know. How about….?"

Charles merely cocked his head, waiting.

Sam's lips thinned, and then he murmured, "Phantasm."

"An interesting choice."

"Well, I'm more than just a shadow," he huffed.

"Indeed. Very well, I'll let everyone know you prefer to be called by Phantasm," he said with a faint shiver.

"Something wrong?"

"No, no. It's not you," Charles admitted. "It's just, I recall a rather dated, and admittedly _disturbing_ film by that very name. Not one of my favorites, you understand," he smiled.

"Oh. Okay. So, was that all you wanted?"

"Not quite. I trust Scott to train you in the use, and honing of your skills, Sam. However, it's obvious you have a large psychic component to your gifts as well, and that must be dealt with. I would like you to spend at least an hour a day with me to help you hone that aspect of your power. The time will be up to you, so long as we're both free. Still, I think you need the help to ensure you don't…..inadvertently harm others around you again."

"Yeah. Yeah, I get that. No problem. Whenever you like," Sam nodded.

"Excellent. Then, until tomorrow," Charles nodded. "I suspect we all need a bit of rest just now," he said, and nodded at him in dismissal.

"I guess," Sam murmured, not about to admit that he had not slept since the day he had left the house. And, apparently, didn't seem to really need to sleep any longer. He didn't get tired. Or feel sleepy. He just…..traveled the shadows around him, and explored what was inside him.

Even he could guess he had yet to assess even a small portion of the power within.

He just wasn't going to tell anyone else.

They seemed to have enough issues with him.

_To Be Continued…_


	5. Chapter 5

_I do not own any Marvel characters named herein, and am only borrowing them for a tale meant for entertainment purposes only._

**X-Men: Phantasm**

**By LJ58**

**5**

"Welcome back," Charles said, standing before him without chair, or metal limbs as they stood on the mental plane the powerful psychic had conjured.

Sam, wrapped in what seemed a long, black duster, was actually surrounded by dark shadows that hid even his features as he stood before the founder of the X-Men.

Charles had already found it telling that the young mutant's mental image seemed to hide, as much as reveal what he was when he manifested himself here. He had been working for over a week now to get him to hone, and practice his mental hold over the shadowy realm he seemed to manifest, and control with an almost eerie ease compared to some mutants he had seen that lost control from the start.

"Ready for today's lesson," Charles asked when Sam said nothing. He rarely did, though. Even now, he favored just waiting for others to say, or do whatever they had in mind, and then proceeding from there.

Sam simply nodded.

"Logan told me you are getting much better at refining your field of control. Today, I want to try something similar. I want you to try to use just your fear inducing ability without manifesting any physical shape. Just use the power of fear itself. Ready?"

Charles staggered in the same instant.

"That well already," he said, his tone wavering slightly as he had been hammered almost before he could get a shield up in spite of thinking himself ready.

"It's what I've already been doing," he grumbled. "it's not that hard."

"No, I don't suppose so," Charles said, recomposing himself as he spoke, and mentally strengthened his own fields. "But what I want you to learn today is that sometimes, you might encounter another with the power that could force your own attack back at you."

"Won't work," Sam murmured, lifting his shadowy visage just a degree.

"You think not?"

"Look, there's something…..I haven't been telling you."

"Sam, by now, you must know you can trust us. We really are here to help you. Both of you."

"Lately, I've been…..experimenting on my own."

"And," Charles asked.

"I've been finding out that while I can…..manifest, or create fears in others, I don't seem to have any left of my own. In fact, my old dreams and nightmares don't do squat to me anymore."

"Yeah. I mean, no. I just…. I study the fears and nightmares others have, and….. I started realizing I don't feel afraid of them. Or anything. Not anymore. It's like….I'm beyond it. Above it."

"I see. That could a side-effect of your own gifts, or…..you could be repressing your own fears to avoid facing them."

"You think I don't know that much? I'm not stupid," Sam growled now. "You want fear? Let me show you yours," he spat, and a living wall of black slammed into Charles before he could react, and he screamed in earnest this time at the nightmarish images that filled his mind.

"Enough, Sam! Phantasm….. _Stop,"_ Charles croaked, barely able to stop the flow of emotions those horrific images created.

"You get it yet? I see everyone's fears, even my own old ones, and it doesn't phase me. At all," the shadowy figure told him quietly. "But more and more, I know and sense the fears in everyone around me. It's like…..I'm a fear magnet, and pull them out even without their consciously thinking on them."

"Which, in turn, feeds your own…..power," Charles realized, and stared hard at him. "Tell me, Sam. Have you…..talked with Jean recently."

"She still avoids me," he said.

"I think you know why."

"I guess," Sam sighed.

"Still, you might want to speak with her. I'm beginning to suspect your powers are very similar to hers. That, you, like her, might just be harboring a near-sentient force much like Jean's Phoenix Force. She might be able to help you with controlling it better than I could," Charles smiled.

Sam stared hard at him, then slowly nodded.

"I'll talk to her."

"And, Sam?"

Sam looked back at him just as he was about to turn, and fade away.

"Try to stop letting Logan get to you. Some of those repairs are getting costly."

"Sorry," he muttered, and disappeared from the psychic plane.

**X**

"Oooh, look at that one," Cat grinned, currently dressed in a long coat, and a ball cap pulled low to hide her furry, feline body.

What currently held her attention was a light blue sundress that matched her eyes when they weren't glowing, or at night. At night, or when she focused on her cat power, they tended to shift from ordinary blue, to bright, amber orbs that let her see in any light.

"It would look nice on you," Dina, another girl her age from the Institute that looked completely normal grinned. Of course, that was her power working. She could look like anything, even herself before she shifted. If she relaxed, though, 'Shade' resembled a human silhouette with absolutely no features.

Angela/Cat sighed as she eyed the price.

"Too bad the tag doesn't think so. That is so far out of my budget that I couldn't afford it until next year. Maybe."

"Those are the breaks," Flora smiled, wearing a wide-brimmed sunhat to mask her own carefully concealed green mane pinned up under her headgear. "I have the money, but I can't find a single thing to wear."

The other two girls looked around the boutique in the local mall, and stared at all the dresses, and designer garments.

"Nothing," Cat and Shade both exclaimed.

"No one has flowers this season. It's like they quit using floral patterns," Flora pouted.

"Truly, a disaster," Dina said, rolling her eyes.

"No, a disaster would be Logan chaperoning us today instead of Ms. Gray," Angela smirked.

"He's not that bad."

"No. But that would have made my brother tag along, because…. You know," she grimaced.

The tension between those two had yet to ease, even though Logan was the one mutant capable of standing in front of Phantasm as he now called himself, and letting him cut loose. Very few wanted to try after facing him only once. His powers of fear could be very, very intimidating.

Even Cat had her issues with him when he let them…..get out.

They were still talking about the current fashions when a lanky boy they didn't know suddenly appeared, and jerked Flora's hat from her head.

"See," he yelled back at a group of older teens. "Told you she was one of those freaks. Who else has green hair like that."

"What's your problem," Dina demanded, snatching Flora's hat back when the girl only gasped, looking uneasy.

Unlike most of them, Flora had no real offensive powers. Even defensively, she wasn't much good, and they all knew it. She could make plants grow, and speak to them on a level no one else understood, but that was all.

The professor felt her powers might grow in time with her, but just now, she was about as ordinary as a mutant could get.

"We don't want trouble," Angela told the boy, stepping between him, and the other girls with her.

"Then you shouldn't have come to _our_ down," the boy huffed, obviously acting out his own bravado for the sake of his peers. "So, why don't you leave? While you can."

"Is that a threat," Dina demanded as a shapely redhead in a smart business suit walked over to join them.

"Problem," Jean asked them as the boy looked ready to actually throw a punch by then.

"These…..misanthoropes were hassling Flora," Dina spat.

Jean stared at the boy, then looked unerringly toward the group of teens not far off.

"Young man, your antics are very close to bordering on the illegal. I suggest you calm down, and walk away…"

"Mutant scum," he screamed, and swung a punch at Flora's tanned face.

Angela moved before anyone else could react, and caught his fist, twisting it down, and back, and he screeched as bone snapped like a twig.

"Big man, picking on little girls," she sneered, showing her very nearly fang-like incisors.

The teen screamed again, and the chaos began.

**X**

"_X-Men_," the mental alert flashed through the entire manor. "_We have an alert. Sentinels are converging on the same mall where Jean took some of the girls shopping. Logan, intercept the sentinels, and stop them from causing any real harm. Scott, find Jean, and the girls, and get them out of there. Go_."

"What's going on," Sam asked Dr. McCoy when the bestial mutant suddenly looked up with an expression of alarm even as the hangar alarm went off.

"Oh, dear. That's right," he said in the same breath, looking at Sam. "You can't hear the Professor, can you? It seems someone targeted Jean's shopping excursion. Sentinels have been dispatched to the mall where they went."

"Angel," Sam gasped, and vanished in a black mist that pulled him into darker shadows.

"Oh, dear," Hank grimaced. "Professor…..?"

"I already know," Charles' voice replied in his mind. "I'm alerting the others now. Meanwhile, we have to get there ourselves. This is not looking good, Hank. Not good at all. I'm monitoring newscasts that suggest this is a full riot."

"Then it has to have been staged, and we were only used as a catalyst," Hank theorized. "Because I rather doubt our sleepy little hamlet has that many mutant haters gathered in one place in such a….timely fashion."

"I'm afraid you might be right. Let's go," he added, appearing in person outside Hank's door as he was on his cyber-limbs, in his own jumpsuit just then that was his concession to the uniform the team wore.

"The Blackbird…..?"

"Logan took his team out. We use the car this time. Hurry."

Hank was behind him all the way.

**X**

Sam had never been to the mall. He had been through town, but didn't tend to stay long. So when he jumped, he could only go to places he knew. When he reached a municipal building, he saw giant robotic figures he now knew were real. The sentinels. A man in a black suit was shouting orders, and what seemed like more than the ordinary police force was gathered around as the suit shouted for heads, and order.

Mostly heads.

Sam wanted to show him his own just then. Only his fear for his sister would not let him waste time.

That, and he had already realized that if he took the fear of these fanatics, only the hate would be left. Only without fear of mutants, they would attack without hesitation, or caution, and nothing would stop them. For now, he felt, their fear was his ally.

He rushed to one side of the crowded street, found a woman that looked terrified, and asked, "What's going on?"

"They said….mutants attacked the mall," the obviously frightened woman whined. "We have to get away…!"

"Calm down," he ordered, and pulled all her fears from her hoping it wouldn't end too badly with just one ordinary person. "Mutants are not all bad. They are people, like anyone else. Good, and bad. You can't blame them all for what a few bad ones do."

"Oh. Oh, you're right. I never thought about it like that," she admitted, looking sheepish now.

"So, where is the mall?"

"You must be new around here," she smiled. "It's right at the end of Central," she pointed. "You can't miss it. It's bigger than City Hall."

"Thank you. And you really should learn to think for yourself. Or you might be the next one the people in power decide to abuse."

"Huh?"

Sam vanished, making the woman blink, and look around in confusion.

"What a strange, young man," she murmured, and continued on her way without the least bit of concern for the chaos erupting around her.

A quarter mile away, Sam reappeared on the end of the main street, and people gaped, shrieking in alarm as he looked around, and then saw the entrance to the nearby mall where part of the huge structure was in flames, and at least three of those huge robots were standing over one wing, one of them smashing a huge fist down at whatever it sought.

Or whoever it sought.

He scowled, and vanished again.

Just as a sleek, black jet swooped down over the mall, and a group of colorfully clad figures leapt out to engage the sentinels as more police, and even armed soldiers appeared to cordon off the building as people continued to run screaming from the shopping mall.

Sam reappeared outside the mall, feeling like an idiot.

He had forgot an aspect of his own power. Focusing not on location, but on a person, he finally sensed Angel's presence, and felt horrified as he found his gaze drawn upward, to where one of the robots was lifting a clenched, metal fist with a golden-furred girl in its grasp.

"Angel," he screamed, and leapt upwards, all his power fueling him as he became a living shadow, and the bright afternoon began to dim.

"Uh-oh," Logan growled as he noted the dimming light. "Looks like the kid's here. And he's pissed."

"You don't say," Scott told him, firing his optic blasts in vain as he discovered the new sentinels were not only deflecting his blasts now, but somehow doing so to make it look as if he were doing the collateral damage himself.

Indirectly, he was.

"Let's just do this the old fashioned way," Logan snarled, and leapt up, using his claws to clamber up the side of one of the sentinels, intent on reaching its head, and the control matrix.

"Mutant detected," the dour, mechanical tone declared, and reached down to pluck him off it's leg. "Termination authorized."

Logan howled as it began to try to crush him, and then things turned completely dark.

"No good…..metal…..freaks," the living shadow wrapped around the sentinal, and Logan seethed, just before the entire mechanical behemoth seemed to just fall apart.

Logan fell with it, landing hard, and taking a moment to recover as he realized the shadow was gone. No, moving on. He looked from the shadow surging up, and around the last sentinel, and realized the other was already gone. Just a mound of useless junk left where a monster had been.

"What the hell," Logan groaned, feeling his nearly pulped body slowly recovering as he looked around. "How is the kid doing that?"

"That's not the issue. He's dangerously close to losing it, Logan," Jean limped over to kneel by him. "And our only hope of calming him may be dying."

Then she pointed.

Cat was down, looking far worse than he did, and the girl was obviously badly hurt.

"Oh, hell. That's not good."

"The Professor is coming, but…..I'm not sure we can calm him down. She may not live, Logan. That thing….."

"I know. It almost flattened me this time. Gotta give those lab geeks credit for their upgrades. They do like to keep things interesting," he moaned, sitting up again by then.

"This isn't funny," Jean told him. "That's the last sentinel, and he's still going….."

"Not the last. I smell guns, and fear. We got an _army_ coming, Jean," he told her, pushing to his feet. "And I think they have backup," he told her, pointing at the massive head of the first sentinel to appear not far off.

All around them, people were screaming, and crying. Some ran, if they could. The authorities were just then moving in as it was obvious the sentinels had been neutralized, and only they were left. Things were about to go straight to hell, and Logan knew it. He had been there far too often.

He turned to watch even as the huge shadowy mist now leaving the mall moved to intercept it.

Which was when everyone, and everything froze.

"Chuck's here," Logan said, noting the shadow was still moving, untouched by the Professor's psionic ability to stop things.

Which, he guessed, was not necessarily a good thing just then.

"Good Lord," Hank cried out as he bonded over to them after the heavy van modified for their needs screeched to a halt nearby. "How bad is she?"

"Bad, Hank," Logan told him, still watching the shadow. "And the kid is really close to going ballistic. I can _feel_ him."

"We all can," Jean said with a shudder. "It's not just fear now. He's actually broadcasting rage, and he's about to hit the heart of the city."

"We cannot allow that to happen," Charles said, moving confidently forward. "Jean, evacuate the wounded, and get them to help. Logan, try to distract him, and slow him down. I'll be right behind you. Jean, I need you to come with us. You may be the only one that can…match him, if it comes to that."

Jean gasped.

"You know the danger of pushing my powers too far," she exclaimed.

"We all do, darlin'," Logan growled. "But how about facing the fact that if we don't stop the kid, your Phoenix don't mean spit to whatever he leaves behind. Which don't look like much," he said, pointing at the dead, and even dismantled machines in Sam's wake as everything mechanical just fell apart, even as he devastated the troops moving with the sentinels.

"Go," Charles shouted, already running himself. "Distract him, Logan. I'm going to try to intensify my psionic field, and pull him. Hopefully, I can then reason with him."

"There's always Plan B," Logan scowled as he ran after the Professor, popping both sets of claws. "Too bad. I kind of liked the kid, too."

"No killing. Not unless we have to," Jean shouted.

Logan only shot her an expression of contempt.

"Sometimes, gal, it's the only option."

_To Be Continued…._


	6. Chapter 6

_I do not own any Marvel characters named herein, and am only borrowing them for a tale meant for entertainment purposes only._

**X-Men: Phantasm**

**By LJ58**

**6**

Angela slowly opened her eyes, feeling a vague rocking, and moaned as she looked around at a crowded van full of limp, bloody bodies. Bodies of her friends.

"Wha' happened," she moaned, seeing Scott and Hank in the front.

"Remarkable," the blur-furred Beast exclaimed, eyeing her. "It seems that Cat has a marked degree of regeneration, too. How intriguing."

"Less analysis, more help," Scott demanded, steering around another abandoned car as they fled the city.

"Oh, right," Hank said, eyeing the GPS grid before him. "It looks like Fourth to Sixth are all blocked. We'd best take the next left."

"It's an alley!"

"And it leads back to Baker, and out of town. Turn," Hank snapped.

"What's going on?"

"Your brother showed up, lost control, and is now trying to destroy the entire city," Scott shouted over his shoulder.

She looked back, and gasped, seeing a large, black shadow rising over the heart of the city itself.

"Oh, no. Sammie."

"Don't worry. Logan, and the Professor will stop him," Hank told her hopefully.

Cat glanced back at him.

"They can't stop Sammie when he's like this. Only I can. Take me back," she snapped.

"We have severely injured people to tend. We can't risk….."

"Then open the door, and let me go. I have to stop him, before it's too late."

The two older men stared back at her, and then at one another.

"Be careful, Cat. Even you don't know how bad you were hurt…."

"I think I still have eight lives left," she smirked, and bounded out the side door, caught, and swung around a light post, and then went bounding back up the street.

"You almost wouldn't believe she had just been almost crushed in the hand of a mutant killing machine, would you," Hank remarked, watching her go.

"Never mind, Hank. Is Baker still clear?"

"Clear. Turn right, then left, and go!"

Scott almost sideswiped a speeding patrol car headed for downtown as he came out of the maze of alleys, but kept going. Nor did the patrol car turn around. He was obviously in a hurry to be somewhere else.

**X**

"….this time the mutant menace will be stopped in its track," the newly elected mayor preened before the cameras as he posed for the media broadcasting his grandstanding as he assembled a show of force just for the event he had planned.

Roland Ericson would be a household name, and a shoe-in for governor, if not more by the time today was over. With his pawns in place, he knew he could lure out a few mutants, put on a show, and then prove he was tough on those freaks, and garner the anti-mutant vote like never before. This time, he would not squeak into office by a narrow margin. He would ride in on a landslide.

Thanks to the MRD support, and the newest anti-mutant sentinels he had borrowed.

Since his town was near a haven of suspected mutant activists, the loan was readily approved by a few senators who liked his stance, and now all he needed was a believable stand on principal, and he would look golden. The agitators he hired to find, and stir up a few mutants would be perfect. The sentinels would perform, and he, Mayor Rolan Ericson, would be a hero. Not to just a small city, but to the nation. Maybe, the world.

Then he heard someone shout, and realized his control pad indicated that the three sentinels he had just dispatched to the mall had been deactivated.

All three!

Impossible. Still, he kept his calm, and smiled, and stated, "And this is why a good leader always has a backup," he said, and sent the other three sentinels marching toward the mall.

Just to be safe, he sent half his assembled force of Guard, and area police with them.

"It's time to let these mutants know they can never defeat true humans with their monstrous….. Their monstrous….."

Roland stared at the growing, black blob that seemed to be headed his way.

He heard wails. Screams. Heard metal clattering, and falling apart as anything swallowed by the blob just vanished.

Then he realized he felt…..something.

Fear.

No, terror.

He felt….

"Screw this," he shouted. "I'm out of here," he said, and turned, and bolted for his panic room.

The declaration only spread more panic as their leader fled, and even some of the police now fled the coming darkness that was now shrouding all before it.

Just before a burly shape leapt over the nearest roof, and plunged headlong into the darkness.

**X**

Sam was in pain.

Fear, and misery clouded everything as he simply struck out instinctively now, intent on sharing his pain with the world.

This wasn't about scaring anyone. Or stopping them. It was about revenge.

He knew that something, or someone was in front of him. He paid them no heed.

No more than he had the things around him as moved instinctively toward City Hall, and the men that sent those things after his sister, and her friends. He barely paused to consider anyone, or anything around him, and all he cared about was reaching those bastards, and making them pay. Making them fear for a change.

And he could do it.

He'd make them all cower, and beg.

And then he would…..

"Sam," a course cry shouted, and he turned to see the staggering body near him, blindly questing through his darkness.

No, not blindly.

_Wolverine._

He was sniffing his way through the dark, coming for him again, and Sam heard him shout again, and paused as he focused on the little man that so irritated him.

"Go away, Logan," Sam hissed. "Don't make me hurt you, too."

"You don't have to do this kid," Logan pushed over, his entire body straining, his very essence radiating fear, and yet he still pushed. "Your sister's okay. The kid can regenerate. She's going to be fine," Logan shouted, trying to push on, his claws sliding out as he searched the darkness with long swipes.

"So you say."

"I'm not lying, kid. You know that's not my style. Come back with me, and….."

"Leave me alone," Sam thundered, and Logan howled as the waves of raw, dark energy swept over and through him, and he gave a wordless howl as he looked down, seeing only a walking adamantium skeleton, and nothing else.

He clenched his fists, claws still extended, and forced his mind not to shut down. It wasn't real. It was an illusion. The kid had not just stripped him of every piece of flesh that covered his metal bones. He grit his teeth, and kept pushing forward.

"Listen to me," Logan shouted. "Cat's okay. You're making a mistake. You're just making it easy for them to blame us," he told Sam.

"I've been blamed from the start! I did nothing. _Nothing,"_ he seethed. "I've had enough. It's their turn to run. Their turn to…"

"Die," a softer voice asked.

Logan and Sam both turned, and there in the darkness, shuddering in terror, a tiny, golden feline tugged at Sam's arm.

"Sam, you're better than this. I'm okay. Even if I wasn't, this isn't what I want. You can't be like this, or….. Or you aren't the brother I love. Stop. Please. Stop," she said, and found herself kneeling in the middle of the street, broken machines of all kinds scattered around the still, or trembling bodies of people literally overcome by their deepest, darkest fears.

"Angel," he murmured.

"This isn't you, Sammie," Cat said, looking up at him with worried eyes. "I know it isn't."

Sam looked down at her, and brushed her bangs back. Her fur was still stained with blood, but the wounds were gone. Wounds he had been so sure were fatal.

"Your friends," he asked quietly.

"Dina's hurt, but she'll heal. We all will. You don't have to do this. Not for us. Not for me," Angela told him. "This isn't what Professor X teaches. Remember? No fighting? You didn't want that, remember?"

Not far down the street, Xavier, and Jean both stopped, staring around them.

Sam looked back at them, feeling the attempts of both to penetrate his mind.

They still couldn't do that. Not unless he let them. Not unless he willingly joined them on the psychic plain.

"Just….calm down. It's okay now. Everyone will be okay. I'm okay," Angela assured him.

Sam kept staring at her, then nodded.

"I know," he said, not looking up at Charles as he, and Jean came closer. Both of them, he could sense, tensed for more trouble. "I really messed up."

"I do understand. She's your family. The only family you have left to acknowledge you. But, Sam, this is just the kind of reaction we want to avoid. It's what gives fuel to the men that fear, and despise us from the start without reason. We have to….."

Sam turned to Angela, and smiled.

"You go back. Learn what you can. I have to go," he told her.

"Go where?"

"Far, far from people," Sam told her. "I need to think. And I can't do that with so many fearful minds around me."

"Kid, trust me," Logan growled. "You can't run away. Sooner of later…."

Sam turned to Logan, and smiled thinly.

"I'll be back. When I can trust myself. Until then, take care of my sister. Or you'll regret it," he added with a faint smirk.

"Sam, wait," Jean started to say, but the boy was just gone. Blinking out of existence like a soap bubble that simply popped.

"I can't sense him anywhere," Charles murmured as Cat cried out in belated protest.

"Perhaps with Cerebro….?"

"Jean, I am not sure even Cerebro could track him if he doesn't want to be found. Remember, he has the uncanny ability to hide inside that shadow of his. And with his teleporting ability, he could be….anywhere."

"He said he'd come back," Angela said quietly, looking at Logan. "Right? He said he would."

"Yeah, Cat. He did. Come on, let's bail, before these losers start remembering they have a spine."

"Good idea," Jean admitted as they headed back the way they had come. "We don't want to be here when the authorities regroup."

Angela said nothing as she looked around sadly, and followed the X-Men back to her new home. She couldn't help but wonder if Sam was going to be okay.

**X**

Sam sat in the dark, and brooded.

Well, not only that.

He was trying to meditate, too.

He couldn't help but make a couple of stops before he had withdrawn completely from the world of men, and tried to delve a little deeper into just what was actually inside him.

To understand it better.

To control it.

Because it was obvious something was still there was greater than he even he had realized. Something that wasn't quite in his grasp, or under his control as yet.

When he had dropped his shadow cloak back in the city, it had actually surprised him to see what had happened around him while he had been mindlessly stalking toward those men that started all that trouble. Still, one of his first stops after leaving Angel had been to the mayor, who he found in a panic room trying to call the National Guard.

He let the man see his own fears up close, and personal, and then he suggested far worse was coming if he ever even thought of targeting mutants again. Ever.

Then he hunted down his father, and brother.

He was a little surprised to learn his mother had bailed on his dad, taking his sister with her. For once, he didn't mind. He gave his dad a little taste of fear in his nightmares that seemed to involve his own son coming back after him. Ironic, he guessed. Then he found Davie, blogging on the Net about the mutant menace, and how they had to be stopped before they contaminated, and destroyed more innocent families.

He left big, bad Davie gibbering in fear, curled up on his own bed with the blanket over his head before he left.

He felt justified.

Because the fear he put into Davie was that _he_ was likely a mutant, too. That he would be turning into a freak any day now. Any day.

Davie turned out to be not quite so accepting as Angela.

He had retreated after that. Teleporting far into the wilds of northern Canada, visualizing a remote park he had once seen in a magazine. He was there instantly, and found an old cabin, cleaned it out, and then settled in. He filled it with provisions easily enough, since he could teleport in and out of stores before anyone realized he was there. Then he sat down, and began to think. And meditate. And try to understand.

He was still sitting cross-legged on the floor weeks later when the door suddenly burst open, and a big man with claws and fur stood there.

"Huh. Guess you were right," the feral mutant growled as he looked back at the man behind him.

"Hello, Shadow," Magneto murmured as he walked past the bigger, shaggier man.

"I prefer Phantasm," Sam told him quietly, staring at him with solid black eyes as he glanced up at the intruders. "And my own company. Why are you here?"

"When I had heard you had left Charles, I knew you had to have realized he could not truly help teach you how to best use your powers."

Sam just stared at him.

"I know how you feel, Phantasm," Magneto called him without any hint of fear as he walked closer.

"Most people are shaking by now when they get too close to me," Sam commented blandly.

"I have long since _lived_ my fears," Magneto told him as he sat on one of the two, spindly chairs in the old cabin. He took off his helmet, and set it on the end of the narrow bed where Sam sat. "Go ahead. I invite you to look. I have nothing to hide."

Sam turned his dark orbs on the man, and felt his life unfurl. Even Logan had his fears. His nightmares. He simply fought through them. Eric Lensherr had faced real monsters, too, and lived to boast of it. Now, he was trying to keep those same monsters from rising anew, and claiming a new minority that he ironically belonged to yet again.

He blinked, and nodded.

"You have suffered."

"So have you," Magneto nodded, reaching for his helmet. "I saw the attack on the mall, and while my Brotherhood came too late to aid you, I can assure you, those at fault will not be trying again."

Sam gave a faint smile.

"Yes, I know. You left the good mayor with a cause to avoid us, didn't you? But you could do more. Far more. And I could show you how to better control your power. Because the key, my brother, is not in _denying_ your gifts, as Charles would teach you, but in accepting them. All of them. Are you ready to listen?"

Sam considered all that had befallen him since he had woke up one morning with the feeling that something was lodged in his chest. Something that broke out the afternoon his brother, and his lackeys once again tormented him. He was a mutant.

That wasn't going to change.

People hated, and feared him.

That would not change.

Still. He saw enough to know that while sincere, all Eric wanted was another soldier. Another weapon.

"I think you should leave now," Sam decided, and his eyes glowed with black light.

Then he was alone.

"Maybe it's for the best," he decided, and closed his eyes to meditate again.

Besides, he had promised Cat he'd be back. He couldn't do that if he didn't have full control. If he didn't know what was inside him, he couldn't reach that point, so he had to find out. He had to face it. The same way Logan did. Ironically, that crazy brute proved to be a very good role model of what was possible.

If you didn't give up.

Sam didn't intend to give up.

**X**

"What the hell just happened," Sabretooth snarled as they found themselves standing on the beach of an island far from where they had been.

"I believe, Victor, that we were dismissed," Magneto only smiled. "Come, we have another mutant to visit. We'll have to wait to see what young Phantasm decides before we approach him again. I daresay, whatever he does, it is going to be interesting, though. Very…..interesting."

"Where the hell are we," the mutant grumbled as he looked around.

"Hawaii. Look," he pointed at the tall mountain beyond the beach. "Mauna Kea. That young man has a very fantastic power. I don't believe we've seen the last of him. Far from it. Now, let's go. We still have work to do."

Victor glared around him, than stomped after Magneto, a part of him grateful no one was around this morning. Frankly, even he got annoyed with all the screaming, and running when people caught a glimpse of him.

"You really think we can still recruit that guy? He just brushed off like we were flies," he frowned, not liking the idea anyone with that much power was out there. Mutants like that tended to be trouble. Big trouble.

"If I learned anything in my years, Victor, it's that nothing is certain. Except the hate and intolerance of common men. Phantasm will surface again, and when he does, we simply have to ensure that he finds our door open. And more attractive than Charles' naïve altruism. Now, come. Coincidence, or not, the other mutant I'm seeking just happens to be in Oahu."

Victor said nothing to that as he followed Magneto toward whoever, or whatever was waiting.

_End…..?_


End file.
